Stained Class is the fourth studio album by British heavy metal group
Judas Priest, released in February 1978. It is the first of three
albums to feature drummer Les Binks. It gained notoriety for its dark
lyrics and themes, as well as a 1990 civil action trial where the band
were accused of backmasking that allegedly led to the suicide attempts
of two teenagers. Stained Class was ranked as the greatest Judas
Priest album on Stereogum.com,[1] and was described by Steve Huey on
Allmusic.com as "Judas Priest's greatest achievement".

Overview[edit]
Stained Class is the only Judas Priest album to feature songwriting by
all five members of the band. It was at this point, however, where
Glenn Tipton became the band’s primary lead guitarist;[citation
needed] from this point forward, he would mostly share songwriting
duties with Rob Halford. K. K. Downing's only standalone performances
on Stained Class are "Savage" and the second solo on "Beyond the
Realms of Death" and "Heroes End", with the rest of the album either
featuring Tipton exclusively or duets between the two.[citation
needed] Newly added drummer Les Binks earned a songwriting credit on
"Beyond The Realms Of Death" for composing the acoustic intro.
The sleeve artwork, by Rosław Szaybo at CBS Records, introduced the
now-classic Judas Priest logo, replacing the Gothic Script logo which
appeared on all of the band's prior albums. Stained Class was the
first Judas Priest album to dent the Billboard 200 chart and was
eventually certified gold in the US.
Dennis MacKay was brought in by CBS Records to produce the album. His
resume at the time consisted mainly of jazz fusion artists, plus David
Bowie, Supertramp, and others. He set himself to the task of cleaning
up the band’s unwieldy songwriting style and making their material
shorter, tighter, and more direct. The recording sessions for Stained
Class took place in October and November 1977 at Chipping Norton
Recording Studios in Oxfordshire.
The album was the heaviest the band had released up to that point —
with the lyrics often dark and violent — with only slight instances
of progressive rock; hereafter, the progressive influences that
characterised the band’s first few albums would be completely
eliminated so that Judas Priest completely embraced heavy metal as
their sound.
"Better by You, Better than Me" was a last-minute addition to the
album when CBS Records insisted on including another more commercial
track to liven up a record with which a majority of the songs have a
very dark and sinister undertone. It was recorded in a separate
session with James Guthrie, as Dennis MacKay had moved on to other
projects and was no longer available. The band was reportedly
impressed with the production Guthrie did on “Better By You, Better
Than Me”, as it stood out in comparison to the overly thin, flat
sound that had plagued their albums up to this point, and they would
ask him to produce their next album, Killing Machine.
"Beyond The Realms Of Death" was the only song from Stained Class to
become a live staple, with 681 performances, being played from 1978
through 1981, being revived on the Mercenaries Of Metal Tour and
appearing on every tour afterwards, except the Firepower World Tour.
Although the title track has been performed relatively often by
Halford away from Priest, Judas Priest themselves have played it live
only three times – twice during 1978 and once in 2005[2] – while
after 1979 "Exciter" disappeared until 2002, also being played in
2005.[3] "White Heat, Red Hot" was frequently performed between 1978
and 1980 but never since,[4] , "Saints In Hell" debuted on Firepower
tour in 2018 , and "Invader" and "Heroes' End" have never been played
live. The notorious "Better By You, Better Than Me" was played live
only seventeen times, mostly in 1978-1979 (with two performances in
1990) and the obscure "Savage" eight times in early 1978.[5]
Stained Class was remastered in 2001, with two bonus tracks added.
Controversy surrounding "Better by You, Better than Me"[edit]
Twelve years after its release, Stained Class was the subject of the
infamous 1990 civil action brought against the band by the family of a
teenager, James Vance, who entered into a suicide pact with his friend
Ray Belknap after allegedly listening to "Better By You, Better Than
Me" on 23 December 1985. Belknap succeeded in killing himself, and
Vance was left critically injured after surviving a self-inflicted
gunshot to the facial area, eventually dying three years later. The
suit alleged that Judas Priest recorded subliminal messages on the
song that said "do it". The suit was eventually dismissed. The song
was originally written and performed by the band Spooky Tooth.
Three weeks after the lawsuit wrapped up, the band kicked off their
Painkiller Tour by playing "Better by You, Better than Me" on the
first concert in Burbank, California on 13 September. It constitutes
Judas Priest's only live performance of the song since 1979.
Comedian Bill Hicks ridiculed the lawsuit as part of his act, pointing
out the absurdity of the notion that a successful band would wish to
kill off their purchasing fanbase.[6]
Critical reception[edit]

Professional ratings

Review scores

Source
Rating

AllMusic
[7]

In 2005, Stained Class was ranked number 307 in Rock Hard magazine's
book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[8] In
2017, it was ranked 43rd in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Metal Albums
of All Time".[9] The album is widely considered to be highly
influential in the speed metal and thrash metal genres. It has also
been viewed as an early indication of the new wave of British heavy
metal movement.
Although Stained Class was well received in the UK and nearly matched
the sales of Sin After Sin, it barely scraped the Billboard 200 in the
United States, a result attributed to American audiences, who were
used to bands like Led Zeppelin, Queen, Aerosmith, and Kiss, having
difficulty digesting Judas Priest’s dark music, which had little in
the way of conventional rock themes. The band was also still
comparatively unknown in the US at the time, being only on their
second tour there. After the success of later albums in the US,
however, Stained Class was eventually certified Gold.
Track listing[edit]

Produced by Dennis MacKay and Judas Priest, and engineered by Neil
Ross, except "Better By You, Better Than Me", produced by James
Guthrie and Judas Priest, and engineered by Ken Thomas and Paul
Northfield
Art design by Rosław Szaybo
Photography by Ronald Kass